Kabal of the Unyielding Horror
"Death solves all problems- No man, no problem." - ''Anatoly Rybakov From the fringes of Commorragh's outer ports, a young, angry Kabal has taken shape from the slums, gutters and oubliettes of numerous minor gangs and nameless cults. Virighn Ceanech united many of the factions under his rule into the closest thing the Dark City has the sledge hammer. The Unyielding Horror are a long lasting, loose conglomeration of gangs and cults, though are an infant Kabal existing for less than a century. They are a testament to how far someone can get in Commorragh on little more than brute force. History Virighn Ceanech is one of innumerable half-born Drukhari incubated in honeycomb labs before being decanted and loosed into the ghettos of the outer ports. Like countless before him, he grew up fast and hard, learning how to kill to survive. Unlike most, he did not immediately seek passage into the inner spires of the Dark City. While his brothers and sisters sought to draw the eyes of powerful wych cults and kabals to earn a place within them, he instead fell in with local arena rings, hellion gangs and reaver circuits. It was easy to subsist on slaves brought in from beyond the Dark City, picking them from passing ships or charging what the major kabals considered a pittance and easier to pay than resist. Over the years, Virighn's location never changed, though his ambition was much like the rest of his kin. Over time he began to amass influence among the outer ports by dominating their nameless arenas, reaver circuits and crushing rival hellion gangs. He spent centuries assimilating his rivals and amassing a horde of blood thirsty cut-throats, reavers and brigands. Recently, Virighn's ambition took the gangs under his rule to new heights. While they had already gained slight attention due to their rule over a cluster of outer ports, they were never of much note to any but the smallest Kabals who based their operations in those areas. Those Kabals were among their first victims, their slaves and factories seized by Virighn through overwhelming force. Raiders, splinter rifles, armors and armories were all appropriated for their use. After a brief period of upheaval within the horde, Virighn maintained his rule over his warband while proclaiming himself their archon. He began establishing weapon trade, narcotic rings and even forged a reaver circuit as something of a racketeering operation to facilitate a regular business for his new kabal, though a kabal only according to him. Lesser Kabals engaged Virighn's kabal as soon as they began establishing themselves. A series of brutal skirmishes ran through the fringe ports, slave stealing and factory looting, plundering of sub-realms and raiding of oubliettes. Each victory added to the kabal's might and mass. While scourges and assassins were commonplace, Virighn's thuggish nature made bullying and bludgeoning his primary weapons against his rivals. Ultimately a Kabal of note, The Book of Sorrows, brought an end to the feuding by offering their patronage. Virighn was offered legions of slaves in exchange for mercenary work, using his subjects as the main muscle of a realspace raid. Upon return from striking an Imperial Hive World, Virighn had the wealth required to move into the inner ports of the Dark City and establish his faction within their own spire. While finally involving himself in spire politics and nexus society, Virighn began to be known among the lesser spires and even among minor archons within the greater Kabals. Unfortunately, he was more infamous due to his brutish rise to power and lack of grace. His peers recieved a clear display of his character when, at a social event on the nexus, Virighn was insulted in a catty manner by a courtier of the Kabal of the Dark Mirror and he decided to murder her in the middle of the event with her Incubi bodyguard. When the others recoiled in shock, he dared a one of them, he so-called 'allies' to do anything about it. He returned to his spire without consequence. When assassination attempts were made, he responded by storming the client's spire with his warriors to collect their skin. It wasn't until it came to the nexus spires themselves and the greater Kabals that Virighn found the patience to play the court game. A brute like Virighn wasn't bound to make it very far, however his outsider methods made him quite interesting when the powers of the greater kabals took notice. At first, it would make sense for the Poisoned Tongue or the Black Heart to see him dead, though despite his appearance he has been careful to avoid battering any toes belonging to big names. Instead, many courtiers and aspirants within the greater kabals have found it appropriate to hire Virighn's kabal as a blunt object to quickly settle disputes outside of the nexus. Many haemonculi covens and wych cults have found use for them as a mercenary force during realspace raids. As long as Virighn kept his racketeering operations outside of the nexus spires, the major kabals cared little for trade wars and territory disputes with other fledgling factions. It wasn't until the flood of daemons into Commorragh that Virighn's force became of major note to those in the nexus. While panic and havoc consumed the spires, the horde of warriors in white and red worked to turn back the tide of beasts. Their combat prowess and overwhelming numbers let them save their territories while other kabals mustered their forces. In the subsequent period of Vect's death and return, they restocked their diminished resources and slaves by plundering the rivals of Vect once their kabals were thrown into disarray. When the fires died and order was restored, Virighn swore loyalty to Vect like so many others, and was formally recognized as the Archon of the Kabal of the Unyielding Horror. Base of Operations The Kabal of the Unyielding Horror operated out of their home spire in the outer nexus, located between the major spires of the Black Heart, Poisoned Tongue and Flayed Skull, and the outer ports of the nameless masses of gangs and smaller Kabals. From there they maintain reaver rigging operations as well as trade cartels over weapons and materials they themselves stole and are selling back to the population. Way of the Kabal Almost unique among the kabals, the Unyielding Horror favor brute force over cunning. They deploy masses of warriors, their numbers swelled by the dregs the outer ports, and hire legions of Scourges and Hellions to assist in demolishing their enemies in real space. While they have the production lines of other kabals, making their own weapons, armor and vehicles, their size required the vast majority of their inventory to be plundered from other kabals or looted from sub-realms. The sheer numbers of the Unyielding Horror does not make them the most militarily powerful, even if they may outnumber most of their peers. While they might have tens of millions of warriors, they are not all the same high standard of heartless murderer as those of other kabals. They may have dungeons staffed by the largest collection of haemonculi in Commorragh, however the majority of them are mere flesh-crafting disciples under the tutelage of one or two free-roaming haemonculi. They may support the most wych cult arenas and supply them with the most drugs, though those arenas will be little more than fighting circuits within the outer ports while the drugs are as likely to kill their users as they are to empower them. Due to the military might of the kabal and their brutish nature, the Unyielding Horror has included foot-hold operations as part of their military doctrine. Like all Kabalites, they are masters of flash warfare and quick raids, however they have learned the benefits of prolonged occupation and exploitation of realspace worlds. When the opportunity presents itself, the Unyielding Horror will enslave the populous and force them to continue working manufactorums, agri-fields, mines, etc.. When a response fleet looms, they will decide whether or not to hold their ground and repel the small response fleet or vanish as quickly as they came. The Kabal of the Unyielding Horror is seen by other kabals as thuggish, uncivilized and barbaric. Many of their number occupy the outer ports where their belligerent shenanigans can continue unimpeded, though some do live closer to their home spire as something more akin to organized gangsters than rowdy pirates. Due to their patronage of smaller gangs that operate on behalf of the kabal, the line is blurred somewhat between them and numerous small hellion gangs and wych cults that don't belong to any other large group. Among the kabal, Khaine is their chief deity who they idolize. Structure The Kabal of the Unyielding Horror has been organized into the 'normal' kabal template following its rise to power within the outer nexus spires, however this structure is rather loose. The shards of the Kabal are more akin to criminal syndicates that operate under the approval of the Archon's court, each shard overseeing numerous splinters that function more like pirate bands and street gangs in service to those over-arching crime syndicate. The shards and splinters enjoy a large amount of autonomy in the outer ports, however are expected to fall more in line with typical kabalite behavior upon entering the nexus regions. Shards of Note: Shard of the Hopeless Dawn Shard of the Restless Sleep Shard of the Looming Dread Shard of the Haunting Dreams Shard of the Shrieking Terror Shard of the Final Dusk Shard of the Endless Twilight Shard of the Lurking Gloom Shard of the Void Waltz (A shard more akin to an underground wych cult and arena combat circuit that operates under the patronage of the Kabal) Shard of the Mangled Flesh (A shard that organized their own oubliettes for amateur flesh-crafters to practice their trade under the guidance of a pair of haemonculi loyal to the Unyielding Horror.) Forces of the Unyielding Horror Ever one to buck trends, Virighns' forces seem to blur the line between kabal and other forces. Hellions, wyches and amateur flesh crafters without any allegiance to named gangs, cults or covens find the patronage of the Unyielding Horror and their home spire. They use quantity over quality, hopefully sheer mass can compensate for skill. 50,000,000+ Kabalite Warriors 1,000,000 Wyches 800,000 Hellions 250,000 Wracks 20,000 Grotesques 500,000 Reavers 6,000,000 Raiders 500 Voidravens Notable Raids by the Unyielding Horror +M42.103 The Pillaging of Heccati. The Kabal of the Unyielding Horror initiated a raid on the Imperial Forge World of Heccati and engaged the local Skitarii forces in numerous kill-team operations before waging open conflict. The actual invasion lasted only a few days and ended with the Unyielding Horror seizing control of a manufactorum. Skitarii forces were quick to dispatch rangers and vanguard to purge the facility of xenos, however arrived a month later out of warp travel to find the forges over-worked and picked clean days before their arrival, the Kabalites vanishing with every scrap they deemed useful and every life-form on the planet. The Magus reviewing the defilement of the site believes security footage was left behind to mock them, showing the forges being used to produce materials for xenos use. Category:Dark Eldar Category:Dark Eldar Kabals